Dior Cruise 2027 at LACMA Channels the Glittering Mythology of Los Angeles

Fade in on Los Angeles, a place that seems to generate its own mythology in real time. For Dior Cruise 2027, unveiled this week at LACMA, Jonathan Anderson stepped directly into that mythology, staging the show within LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries, the long-awaited architectural landmark conceived by Peter Zumthor. Against the building’s sweeping concrete curves and fluid expanses of glass, the collection shimmered with the ghosts of cinema, the glow of neon boulevards, and the restless imagination that has long defined Hollywood.

Staged inside an immersive environment described by the House as “an illusion of LA, in LA,” the show unfolded like a screenplay. Guests arrived beneath the fading light of the Hollywood Hills before entering a smoky dreamscape animated by music, vintage cars, the sounds of a film set, and a cast of characters who seemed pulled from decades of California fantasy.

Hollywood as Dior’s Eternal Muse

At the core of the collection was Dior’s historic relationship with film. Anderson traced one of the collection’s starting points to a Haute Couture Spring/Summer 1949 jacket worn by Marlene Dietrich in Stage Fright by Alfred Hitchcock. According to the press materials, creatively designed in script format, Dietrich famously insisted on wearing Dior for the role, declaring, “No Dior, no Dietrich!” 

The evening itself carried that same star-powered magnetism. Among those in attendance were Lauren Hutton, Al Pacino, Jisoo, Macaulay Culkin, Miley Cyrus, Jeff Goldblum, Miranda Kerr, Bill Pullman, and Miles Teller, alongside a wider constellation of artists, actors, musicians, and industry figures who gathered joyfully beneath the museum’s ethereal architecture.

That cinematic thread carried through the entire presentation. Anderson reflected on Christian Dior’s fascination with dreams and escapism after World War II, connecting couture, Surrealism, and Hollywood into one emotional landscape. The designer also nodded to the founder’s own work in costume design, including collaborations on films like Terminal Station and Les Enfants Terribles.

A Love Letter to California Light

Flowers appeared throughout the collection as recurring motifs, especially the Californian poppy, which Anderson cited as a central reference. The opening look—a buttercup-yellow dress covered in rosettes—set the tone immediately, followed by colorful gowns that seemed to float across the runway like fields of wildflowers at golden hour.

Elsewhere, bouclé wool jackets with frayed cuffs brought texture and softness to sharply constructed silhouettes. Embroidered lace evening dresses simmered alongside patchwork scarves and oversized shearling coats, each piece carrying a sense of movement and spontaneity. The collection captured the many archetypes of Los Angeles: the artist in worn denim, the actress slipping into couture at dusk, the musician driving down Wilshire Boulevard after midnight.

Anderson also infused familiar American garments with heightened craftsmanship. A pair of distressed jeans embroidered with delicate silver chains transformed workwear into something nearly ceremonial. As the designer remarked in the show notes, “The everyday becomes couture.” 

Menswear Glimmers Into Focus

The men’s looks emerged gradually, cinematically, midway through the presentation. Sequinned tailoring flashed beneath the runway lights while pyjama-inspired shirts were paired with leather trousers in silhouettes that balanced languid ease with polished glamour.

Several standout pieces were created in collaboration with artist Ed Ruscha, whose unmistakable relationship to Los Angeles made him a natural presence within the collection. Quintessential American shirts incorporated imagery and language drawn from Ruscha’s existing works, grounding the show in the visual vocabulary of the city itself. Anderson described the artist’s practice as capturing “the mundane and how it relates to the city’s grandeur.”

Meanwhile, celebrated milliner Philip Treacy contributed sculptural headpieces that revisited techniques originally developed for Isabella Blow, reimagined here through feathered typography and weightless forms. 

Accessories in Motion

Accessories carried the same cinematic richness. Dior introduced a streamlined evolution of the Saddle bag inspired by vintage American cars, complete with glossy finishes reminiscent of automobile paint and motor-key charms. Fresh silhouettes included a bucket bag adorned with a Dior Médaillon and a shoulder bag shaped with a crescent base.

Shoes and sunglasses sparkled with sequins and floral embellishments, while a nautilus-inspired minaudière added a hypnotic flourish worthy of old Hollywood legend.

By the finale, as every model returned to the runway in a swift carousel set to AIR’s Kelly Watch The Stars, Dior Cruise 2027 had fully cast its spell. The collection embraced the city as cinema itself—radiant, elusive, emotional, and forever suspended within a dream.